CARLTON coach Brett Ratten remains unperturbed about rumours his spearhead Brendan Fevola is being head-hunted by rival clubs.
If anything, he's flattered by the fact his marquee player is generating such interest across the competition.
"It's good. It means your players are worth some interest from other clubs," Ratten said on Tuesday, when asked if he was concerned about reports Sydney has approached the soon-to-be out of contract Fevola.
"It means they're fairly good players, so it's fine."
He's also not worried about the fact Fevola has been reported to be talking up his contractual situation.
"Brendan's got a different character to most and the way he goes about his footy is a lot different," he said.
"I think we can't squash that out of him. He's very outward and he says what he'd like to do.
"We don't want to take that away from him. We just need to harness it.
"It's fine, he can say that and maybe it's flattering that another club has got interest, if they have got any interest."
Ratten said Fevola has returned to the club after spending his weekend off in Sydney, and like captain Chris Judd, has renewed enthusiasm about the rest of the season.
He also remained patient when asked yet again about the ramifications of Fevola taking his time in committing to a new deal, and said such focus should be shared across his other out-of-contract players.
"Brendan is back from Sydney, he went up there for a book launch. He has come back and he is vibrant," he said.
"The contract will take care of itself, and I wish maybe [the media] would speak about Jarrad Waite, we've still got to finish his contract off as well, and I think Marc Murphy's is pretty much done hopefully, and there are a few others as well."
Ratten was quick to put an end to any thought out-of-favour Sydney spearhead Barry Hall could make his way to the club next year if he fails to make peace with the Swans.
"Barry's over 30, he is a great player, but players that are 30 for us are probably the wrong end of the spectrum," he said.
"We're looking at the younger types, players around that 24, 25 mark. We want to get 100 games out of them at this club so he'd be too old."